SEMANTICS IN LINGUISTIC KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS

This paper looks at the semantics, semantic measures and definitions a imed at the semantics of a Linguistically Represented system of Knowle dge (LRK), treated as a semantically closed system. The knowledge is v iewed as three complementary subsystems: language of knowledge, knowle dge structure, and knowledge operators. The semantics of LRK is contai ned within the semantic interpretation of the syntactic structures of LRK. To operate and utilize LRK requires that all interfaces, includin g knowledge itself, be carried out in, and only in, English. The conce pt of LRK has nothing to do with so-called databases. The concept of a linguistically represented system of knowledge keeps all its content in the form of linguistic structures. LRK systems utilize their own op erators for restructuring, extracting, simplification, merging, decomp osition, integration, summary and other operations. The presented theo ry examines modifications and substitutions as primary semantic operat ions. It defines notions, such as, semantic neighborhood, semantic pro ximity, semantic primitives and semantic units. The theory also introd uces several semantic measures. The theory is the basis for the implem entation of a knowledge system shell called CORTEX(TM), built with the computer language NATLANG, designed for processing English by MARBLE SOFTWARE.